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AUTHOR: 


TITLE: 


GIORDANO  BRUNO,  HIS 
LIFE,  TEACHINGS  AND., 


PLACE: 


[NEW  YORK] 

DA  TE : 

[190- 


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109 
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v.l 


Giordano  Bruno,  his  life,  teachings  and  martyr- 
don.   i-Nen  York?  190- ?3 

15  p.   lajr  en  in  25-^-  cm.  (Truth  seeker  tracts, 
new  series,  no.  47.  p.  871-885) 


Caption  title* 


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103 


GIORDANO   BRUNO. 


HIS  LIFE,  TEACHINGS,  AND  MAR- 
TYRDOM. 


Jl^- 


Giordano  Bruno  was  born  at  Nola,  near  Naples, 
in  1548  or  1550.  Some  biographers  assert  that 
he  was  of  noble  lineage,  others  that  his  parents 
were  of  the  poor  class.  His  father's  name  was 
Giovanni  and  he  was  a  soldier.  His  mother's 
name  was  Fraulissa  Savollna,  and  he  was  bap- 
tized Filippo,  which  he  changed  to  Giordano  when 
he  assumed  the  religious  habit.  **  His  excitable 
disposition,  fervid  imagination,  untiring  restless- 
ness, may  well  be  called  volcanic,'*  says  Owen, 
thus  resembling  the  atmosphere,  soil,  and  water 
of  the  Naples  district  in  which  he  passed  his 
youth.  **  His  works,  poured  forth  under  the  in- 
fluence of  intense  feeling,  and  carrying  destruc- 
tion to  much  of  the  assumed  learning  and  settled 
convictions  of  the  time,  may  be  likened  to  so 
many  streams  of  lava." 

The  first  dogmas  to  be  attacked  by  the  expand- 
ing intellect  of  Bruno  were  those  of  the  Trinity, 
Transubstantiation,  and  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion, for  he  was  from  the  beginning  idealistic  in 
his  mode  of  thought,  and  he  had  also  early  recog- 
nized the  unvarying  order  of  natural  processes. 
The  kingdom  of  Naples  in  this  century  was  a 
stronghold  of  Anti-Trinitarianism,  and  Bruno 
was  passionately  fond  of  discussion  and  expressed 

(Truth  Seeker  Tracts,  New  Series.    No.  47.— Page  871.) 


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2 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


GIORDANO   BRUNO. 


It 


his  opinions  freely.  *'The  name  of  Person  he 
declared  inapplicable  both  to  the  Son  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost."  He  was  subjected  to  a  process  for 
heresy  before  he  had  ended  his  novitiate  and  to 
another  after  he  had  taken  full  orders.  He  per- 
ceived his  danger  and  left  Naples,  which  he  never 
saw  again,  reaching  Rome  in  1576. 

But  he  was  not  safe  there.  **His  superiors,  with 
the  keen  dogmatic  apprehension  of  bigots,  which 
is  often  in  exactly  inverse  ratio  to  their  dull  intel- 
lectual comprehension,  had  clearly  discovered 
Bruno*s  abilities."  He  learnt  that  the  process 
he  had  left  behind  was  to  follow  him  to  Rome, 
and  the  case  was  graver  than  before,  for  his 
enemies  discovered  prohibited  works  of  Jerome 
and  Chrysostom  as  annotated  by  the  heretic 
Erasmus,  which  he  had  abandoned  in  his  hurried 
flight.  Dropping  his  religious  habit  and  resum- 
ing his  name  of  Philip,  he  departed  to  Genoa. 
Here  he  established  a  school  for  boys  and  also 
gave  private  readings  to  a  few  adult  pupils  on  the 
sphere,  /.  <?.,  celestial  geography.  Probably  he 
here  studied  the  Copernican  astronomy.  He  wrote 
two  treatises  which  have  been  lost.  In  quick  suc- 
cession he  went  to  Savona,  Turin,  and  Venice.  In 
Venice  he  wrote  a  work,  '^The  Signs  of  the 
Times,"  which  a  learned  Dominican  approved, 
but  which  is  not  subsequently  mentioned  by 
Bruno.  Going  to  Padua  after  two  months,  he 
soon  left  that  town  and  visited  Brescia,  from 
which  he  departed  for  Bergamo,  where  he  re- 
sumed his  Dominican  habit,  upon  which  he  wore 
his  scapular.  Next  in  Milan,  where  it  is  supposed 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
later  known  under  better  conditions  in  England. 
From  Milan  back  to  Turin  and  thence  across  the 

Alps  to  Chambery.   He  had  intended  to  go  to  Ly- 

(872) 


V- 


)    -V 


ons,  but  hearing  unfavorable  reports  of  the  French 
convents  he  proceeded  to  Geneva,  still  in  1576. 
"  He  found  Protestanlsm  as  antagonistic  to  free 
Inquiry  as  he  knew  Romanism  to  be.  As  Bar- 
tholom^ss  says,  **  The  two  churches  were  gov- 
erned  by  the  same  principle  of  jurisdiction— the 
-rimlnallty  of  heresies.  Wiioever  believed  wrongly, 

that  is  to  say,  otherwise  than  the  Holy  Office  or 
the  Venerable  Consistory,  believed  nothing;  and 
he  who  believed   not  committed  the  crime    of 
treason  to  God,  and  deserved  capital  punishment. 
Persecution  hence  became  a  sacred  duty,  an  act 
agreeable  to  God.  The  greater  Its  intolerance,  the 
greater  its  value."     Hence  Bruno  was  not  long 
left  in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  Calvin's  city  was 
a  very  poor  place  of  refuge  for  a  philosopher  of 
the  free  spirit.     For  two  and  a  half  months  he 
made  a  meagre  livelihood  by  correcting  for  the 
press,  and  then,  realizing  that  he  must  starve  or 
openly  profess  Calvinism  if  he  remained  in  Ge- 
neva,  he  went  to  Lyons.  «*  Such,"  remarks  Owen, 
'* was  the  first  of  several  experiences  of  Protestant 
liberty  which  induced  him  to  regard  the  Reforma- 
tion as  a  deformation."  From  Lyons  to  Toulouse, 
where,  after  examination  for  a  doctor's  degree,  he 
secured  the  professorship  of  Ordinary  Reader  of 
Philosophy   in  the    University,   the    second    in 
France,  although  he  was  wholly  unknown.    Here 
he  lectured  for  two  years  and  a  half  and  wrote 
several  books,  some  of  which  are  lost.     He  also 
had  public  disputations,  but  was  not  persecuted, 
although  encountering  the  antagonism  of  School- 
men and  Peripatetics.    Going  to  Paris  in  1579.  ^^ 
lectured  independently  in  the  Sorbonne  on  theo- 
logical subjects,  and  the  king  invited  liim  to  an 
audience,  ending   by   offering  him   an   Ordinary 
Lectureship  in  the  Univ  rslty  of  Pans.  To  accept 

(873) 


V. 


4  GIORDANO  BRUNO. 

would  entail  the  necessity  of  attending  mass,  and 
so  he  declined  the  offer.  Later,  offered  a  chair  as 
Extraordinary  Reader  in  philosophy,  without  an 
obligation  to  attend  mass,  he  accepted.  This 
period  forms  an  agreeable  episode  in  his  career. 
Here  he  published  more  books,  including  one 
containing  the  germ  of  his  system. 

Near  the  close  of  1583  he  went  to  England,  with 
letters  of  introduction  from  Henry  III.  to  the 
French  ambassador.  This  was  the  golden  age  of 
Bruno's  life.  Enjoying  the  protection  and  support 
of  the  ambassador,  Castelnuovo,  he  first  had  what 
he  called  the  **  libertas  philosophandi,"  for  which 
he  had  so  long  wished,  and  he  could  devote  him- 
self to  intellectual  pursuits  with  no  fear  of  poverty 
or  persecution.  Some  of  his  chief  works  were 
written  at  this  time,  and  in  the  house  of  the  ambas- 
sador he  met  * '  sl  select  few  of  the  best  contempo- 
rary representatives  of  English  culture."  His 
eulogistic  comments  on  Queen  Elizabeth  and  other 
non- Roman  princes  *' formed  one  item  in  the 
charges  which  the  Inquisition  proffered  against 
him.'*  Anxious  always  to  carry  on  his  propaganda, 
he  sought  for  a  position  in  the  University  of  Ox- 
ford, and  secured  permission  to  lecture.  His 
work  did  not  meet  with  a  favorable  reception,  as 
in  religion  it  was  neither  Romanist  nor  Anglican, 
and  in  physical  science  it  was  not  in  harmony 
with  Aristotle.  He  found  Oxford  inferior  as  a 
university  and  nicknamed  it  **the  widow  of  sound 
learning."  Taking  part  in  the  Oxford  tourna- 
ments, he  vigorously  defended  the  Copernican 
system  against  the  Ptolemaic  and  showed  himself 
the  unyielding  foe  of  Peripateticism. 

The  English  climate  and  manners  not  agreeing 
with  the  warm-blooded  and  polite  son  of  the 
South,  he  returned  to   Paris  in    the    suite  of 

(874) 


GIORDANO   BRUNO.  O 

Castelnuovo  late  in  1585,  and  soon  resumed  his 
lectures  and  disputations  in  the  Sorbonne.  His 
attacks  upon  the  Peripatetics  excited  attention 
and  some  animosity.  The  civil  discords  in  France 
induced  him  to  leave  Paris  early  in  1586,  although 
this  move  was  also  in  harmony  with  his  prede- 
termination to  visit  other  universities.  Reaching 
Marburg  in  July,  1586,  he  immediately  applied 
for  permission  to  lecture  in  the  university.  This 
was  refused,  **for  grave  reasons."  Leaving  at 
once  for  Mayence,  he  stopped  there  for  but  a  few 
days,  when  he  proceeded  to  Wittenberg.  Here 
no  questions  were  asked,  no  letters  of  recom- 
mendation required,  although  he  had  them  in 
plenty.  He  lectured  in  Wittenburg  for  two  years, 
the  first  being  devoted  to  metaphysical  specula- 
tions and  the  second  to  Aristotle's  **Organon." 
Two  treatises  were  written  while  here.  Through 
a  change  in  the  throne  of  Saxony  which  threat- 
ened to  give  the  Calvinists  the  ascendency  over 
the  Lutherans  in  the  University  of  Wittenburg, 
Bruno  thought  it  prudent  to  take  his  departure. 
Prague  was  his  next  stopping-place.  Here  he 
published  three  books,  two  dedicated  to  the  Span- 
ish ambassador  at  the  court  of  Rudolph  II.  and 
the  other  to  that  monarch  himself.  In  the  last 
he  claimed  full  liberty  of  judgment  in  the  liberal 
sciences,  affirming  that  in  these  matters  he  does 
**  not  allow  the  authority  of  parents,  of  masters, 
of  traditions,  or  of  customs."  (Owen.)  Rudolph, 
a  dabbler  in  occultism,  accepted  the  book  and 
sent  Bruno  300  thalers,  a  much-needed  present. 
His  stay  in  Prague  was  not  satisfactory,  for  he 
had  no  opportunity  to  lecture,  and  missed  "  the 
encouragement  and  excitement  produced  by  the 
applause  of  enthusiastic  pupils."   Going  to  Helm- 

stadt,  he  secured  for   himself  favorable  recogni- 

(875) 


GIORDANO   BRUNO. 


tion  and  some  substantial  remuneration  from  the 
young  Duke  of  Brunswick,  but  a  dispute  with 
Boetius,  the  superintendent  of  the  Evangelical 
church,  soon  clouded  his  prospects,  and  resulted 
in  his  excommunication  by  that  Protestant  pope. 
He  appealed,  but  probably  mistrusting  the  out- 
come, he  quietly  departed  for  Frankfort,  which  he 
reached  in  April,  1590,  **  whence  he  issued  (with- 
out naming  them)  a  decree  of  fulmination  against 
the  Brunswick  theologians." 

In  Frankfort  Bruno  became  acquainted  with 
the  great  publishers,  Wechel,  and  by  them  was 
most  kindly  received  and  lodged  in  a  Carmelite 
convent  at  their  expense.  Frankfort  was  an  in- 
tellectual center,  and  to  it  came  scholars  from  all 
parts  of  Europe.  Among  those  whom  Bruno  met 
there  were  two  Venetian  booksellers,  Ciotto  and 
Britanno.  When  they  returned  to  Venice  they 
took  with  them  a  newly-published  work  of 
Bruno's,  which  Professor  Berti  thinks  was  **  De 
Monade  Numero  et  Figura."  Ciotto  showed  this 
work  to  a  young  nobleman,  a  man  of  **  supersti- 
tious and  weak  intellect."  It  seems  that  he  had 
dabbled  in  some  of  the  so-called  *  *  occult "  sciences, 
and  he  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  Bruno  **  had 
in  reserve  a  large  amount  of  esoteric  lore,  which 
the  work  only  hinted  at."  He  induced  Ciotto  to 
send  a  letter  to  Bruno  to  come  to  Venice  to  in- 
struct him,  Mocenigo.  He  also  himself  sent  a 
letter  begging  the  Nolan  to  come  with  all  speed. 
Fifteen  years*  wandering  over  Europe  had  made 
Bruno  intensely  home-hungry;  he  forgot  the  In- 
quisition, he  forgot  the  martyrdoms  for  Free- 
thought  which  had  taken  place  in  Italy  during 
his  absence,  he  forgot  the  old  processes  against 
himself,  everything  but  the  genial  skies  of  Italy 

and  the  sweet  smiles  of  its  children.    He  at  once 

(876) 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


7 


accepted  the  offer  of  Mocenigo,  and  left  Frankfort 
in  such  haste  that  he  neglected  to  mark  for  cor- 
rection the  closing  pages  of  a  book  the  Wechels 
were  bringing  out  for  him. 

The  Shadow  Begins  to  Lower. 

Bruno  reached  Venice  in  1592.  In  mentality, 
disposition,  and  education  the  master  and  pupil 
were  at  the  antipodes.  Mocenigo  was  "  a  gloomy, 
superstitious,  mistrustful  fanatic."  But  Bruno 
imparted  to  him  what  he  wished  to  learn,  the 
Lullian  Cabbala,  and  his  method  of  artificial 
memory.  The  Freethinker  was  induced  to  take 
up  his  abode  in  Mocenigo's  house.  In  addition  to 
his  teaching  of  his  host,  he  was  superintending 
the  publication  of  new  works,  frequenting  the 
bookshops,  and  holding  discussions  with  their 
other  habitues.  The  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  had 
stimulated  in  Venice,  as  in  other  Italian  cities,  the 
formation  of  private  debating  clubs,  where  in- 
teresting and  momentous  questions  were  debated. 
There  were  two  of  these  clubs  in  Venice,  one  at 
the  house  of  the  merchant  Sechini,  where  scientific 
discoveries  were  the  chief  topics,  and  the  other  at 
that  of  Morosini,  a  man  of  culture,  who  was  the 
chief  historiographer  of  Venice.  Bruno  was  early 
introduced  hereby  Ciotto.  The  subjects  discussed 
were  of  a  literary  and  philosophical  character, 
having  no  connection  with  religion,  as  Morosini 
himself  testified  before  the  Venetian  inquisitors. 
This  was  in  harmony  with  that  separation  of  phi- 
losophy and  religion  for  which  the  Freethinkers 
of  the  Renaissance  contended.  Meanwhile  Bruno 
occasionally  lectured  in  the  University  of  Padua 
and  **  gave  private  lectures  to  some  German  stu- 
dents." These  duties  in  Venice  and  Padua  occu- 
pied some  seven  or  eight  months.    Already  Mo- 


8 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


9 


cenlgo  had  become  suspicious  as  to  the  orthodoxy 
of  his  tutor.  He  toid  his  suspicions  to  his  con- 
fessor, and  was  advised  to  investigate  further 
concerning  Bruno's  errors,  and  then  to  denounce 
him  to  the  Inquisition.  This  he  proceeded  to  do, 
exercising  his  ingenuity  to  draw  out  Bruno  and 
make  him  commit  himself.  The  denuaciation 
was  made  to  the  Inquisition  in  a  letter  dated  the 
23d  of  May.  Meantime  Bruno  perceived  the  drift 
of  events  and  determined  to  return  to  Frankfort. 
He  sent  his  completed  manuscripts  to  the  press, 
arranged  other  business  affairs,  and  then,  most 
rashly,  went  to  bid  farewell  to  the  treacherous 
zealot.  Mocenigo  used  first  persuasions  and  then 
threats  to  detain  him.  Failing,  he  resorted  to 
combined  deception  and  violence  and  made  Bruno 
a  prisoner.  The  next  day,  the  23d,  he  sent  his 
denunciation  to  the  Inquisition. 

The  Shadow  Blackens  and  Closes  Down,  Never  Again 

to  Lift. 

On  the  night  of  the  23d  he  was  removed  to  the 
prison  of  the  Inquisition.  The  trial  began  on  the 
26th  of  May.  Answering  the  interrogatories  of 
the  judges,  he  told  why  he  came  to  Venice.  He 
used  several  days  in  recounting  the  chief  events  of 
his  life.  What  he  said,  **  preserved  in  the  Vene- 
tian documents,  now  constitutes  the  sole  au- 
thority for  most  of  his  life."  He  was  a  philoso- 
pher, he  stated,  not  a  theologian,  and  therefore 
had  a  freedom  of  inquiry  and  exposition  that  a 
theologian  could  not  possess.  He  had  taught 
nothing  directly  contrary  to  Christianity,  although 
some  implications  of  his  teaching  might  come  into 
conflict  with  Christianity,  just  as  it  might  with 
the  teaching  of  Aristotle  or  Plato.     The  universe 

was  infinite,   consisting  of  innumerable  worlds, 

(878) 


/ 


like  our  own.  It  was  governed  by  general  and 
constant  law,  which  he  called  Providence,  pos- 
sessing power,  wisdom,  and  goodness;  that  is, 
mind,  intellect,  and  love.  He  admitted  his  blame 
for  not  observing  the  rules  of  the  church  more 
closely,  and  promised  amendment  for  the  future. 
Replying  to  a  question,  he  said  he  had  always 
believed  the  miracles  of  Christ  were  "  divine,  true, 
real,  and  not  pretended.'*  He  believed  in  the 
transubstantiation  of  the  bread  and  wine  '  *  into 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  really  and  substan- 
tially," but  had  not  attended  mass  for  sixteen 
years  beeause  of  his  excommunication.  Neither 
had  he  confessed,  **  although  he  held  that  the 
Sacrament  of  Penance  was  ordained  to  purge  our 
sins,  and  he  believed  that  every  man  dying  in 
mortal  sin  would  be  damned."  (All  from  Owen.) 
This  defense  met  some  of  the  counts  in  Mocenigo's 
indictment,  but  there  were  many  more  in  reserve. 
Bruno  was  charged  with  saying  that  Christ  was  a 
crafty  personage,  that  he  was  a  magician,  that  he 
(Bruno)  had  a  mind  to  perform  more  miracles 
than  had  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  that  there  was 
no  punishment  for  sin,  that  souls  passed  from  one 
body  into  another,  and  so  on  and  on.  To  all  these 
accusations  Bruno  returned  specific  and  vehement 
denials.  He  gave  a  list  of,  admitted  the  author- 
ship of  and  accepted  the  responsibility  for  all  his 
works,  and  affirmed  that  **  no  examination  of  them 
would  discover  that  he  had  sought  to  bring  the 
Catholic  religion  into  contempt."  The  pretended 
hesitation  and  kindness  of  the  Venetian  inquisi- 
tors undoubtedly  helped  in  the  undoing  of  Bruno, 
by  deceiving  his  generous  nature  and  thus  lead- 
ing him  on  to  make  unfortunate  admissions. 

At  the  close  of  his  second  examination  on  the 
30th  of  May,  *  *  he  expressed  some  regret  that  he 

(879) 


i\ 


10 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


11 


had  discoursed  too  much  as  a  philosopher  and  not 
sufficiently  as  a  good  Christian"  (Owen).  On  the 
3d  of  June  he  said  to  his  judges  that  he  **detested 
and  abhorred  all  the  errors  that  he  had  commit- 
ted up  to  the  present  time  against  the  Catholic 
faith,  all  the  heresies  he  had  held,  and  the  doubts 
he  had  entertained  respecting  the  beliefs  and  dog- 
mas of  holy  church,"  adding:  ''  I  repent  of  hav- 
ing done,  held,  said,  believed,  or  doubted  things 
not  Catholic,  and  I  implore  this  sacred  tribunal, 
in  pity  to  my  infirmity,  to  receive  me  into  the 
church,  providing  for  me  remedies  useful  to  my 
salvation,  and  to  have  mercy  upon  me."  At  the 
last  hearing  on  the  30th  of  July  he  made  a  still 
more  humble  recantation,  dropping  on  his  knees 
and  asking  the  pardon  of  God  and  the  tribunal, 
pleading  for  a  punishment  ** whose  excess  may  be 
a  public  notification  in  due  proportion  to  the  dis- 
grace I  may  have  brought  on  my  sacred  habit  as  a 
monk."  Rev.  John  Owen  (**The  Skeptics  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance,"  p.  286)  comments  thus  on 
these  confessions : 

With  the  exception  of  distinct  and  repeated  refusals  to 
recant,  and  the  defiant  utterance  with  which  he  met  his 
final  sentence,  nearly  eight  years  after,  these  are  Bruno's 
last  authentic  words.  They  serve  to  show  that  the  infa- 
mous methods  of  the  Inquisition  had  succeeded  in  tempo- 
rarily humbling  one  of  the  most  daring  spirits  that  ever 
lived.  How  long  the  humiliation  really  lasted,  by  what 
means  it  was  effected,  how  far  its  form  was  suggested  by 
the  officers  of  the  Inquisition,  or  was  the  ej:  ammo  confes- 
sion of  Bruno  himself,  we  shall  never  know.  Remember- 
ing Bruno's  undaunted  spirit,  I  incline  to  the  belief  that  it 
was  extorted  from  the  poor  wretch  by  a  promise  of  liberty 
or  by  the  tortures  of  the  rack,  or  it  may  have  been  induced 
by  the  debilitating  effect  of  a  dreary  imprisonment  on  such 
a  freedom-loving  spirit,  or  by  some  other  of  the  iniquitous 
means  by  which  the  Holy  Office  induced  false  confessions 
when  they  were  unable  to  obtain  true. 
"^  (880) 


For  seven  or  eight  weeks  after  this  final  exam- 
ination in  Venice,  Bruno,  for  some  unexplained  rea- 
son remained  undisturbed  in  prison,  and  his  ene- 
mies were  apparently  quiescent.  Then  the  acts  of 
his  process  were  forwarded  to  Rome,  and  Cardinal 
Sanseverino,  the  Chief  Inquisitor,  demanded  his 
extradition.  Venice  was  slow  to  comply  with  the 
demand,  but  finally  yielded,  as  a  special  favor  to 
the  pope,  and  Bruno  was  committed  to  the  prison 
of  the  Inquisition  in  Rome  on  the  27th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1593.  He  had  not  gone  to  a  speedy  if  hor- 
rible death;  that  comparative  mercy  was  denied 
to  him.  He  who  passionately  loved  liberty,  to 
whom  the  earth  itself  was  too  small  a  cage,  who 
aspired  to  the  limitless  freedom  of  the  cosmos, 
was  doomed  to  spend  seven  eternal  years  in 
the  dank,  black,  cold,  fetid  cell  of  a  medieval  dun- 
geon, in  isolation,  idleness,  and  torturing  thought, 
shut  out  from  his  fellows  and  all  the  intellectual 
activities  and  warfare  which  to  him  had  been  the 
very  breath  of  life.  The  silence  of  the  tomb 
hangs  over  nearly  all  the  hours  of  those  seven 
years.  We  know  nothing  of  the  tortures  to  which 
Bruno  was  subjected,  of  the  infernally  ingenious 
devices  which  were  employed  to  break  down  his 
spirit  and  to  crush  out  his  last  yearning  wish  for 
freedom.    As  Owen  says  : 

The  long  duration  of  his  imprisonment  seems  to  imply 
that  unusual  pains  were  taken  to  convert  a  heresiarch 
wnose  fame  was  European,  or  at  least  to  present  him  in 
his  last  hours  in  the  penitent  state  of  mind  which  would 
reflect  so  much  lustre  on  his  holy  tormentors,  and  be  such 
an  edifying  spectacle  to  the  faithful. 

The  end  is  drawing  nigh.  On  the  14th  of 
January,  1599,  Bruno  was  brought  before  the 
Congregation  of  the  Inquisition.      There  were 

read  to  him  eight  heretical  propositions  extracted 

(881) 


12 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


from  his  works.  He  was  told  to  deliberate  upon 
and  recant  these  heresies.  On  the  4th  of  February 
of  the  same  year  he  was  again  before  the  Congre- 
gation, and  he  was  informed  that  forty  days  con- 
stituted the  period  within  which  his  deliberations 
must  be  confined.  What  happened  we  can  only 
surmise;  the  next  time  we  see  him  he  is  again 
before  the  Congregation,  on  the  21st  of  December. 
He  now  said  that  '*he  neither  ought  nor  wished 
to  recant."  On  this  or  the  next  day  he  is  heard 
regarding  his  opinions  and  prison  privations. 
Silence  envelops  the  first  three  weeks  of  1600. 
But  now  events  are  hurrying.  Bruno  again  ap- 
pears before  his  judges,  and  presents  a  memorial. 
It  is  opened,  but  not  read,  there. 

That  its  contents  were  of  an  unsatisfactory  character  is 
shown  by  the  appended  decree,  which  informs  us  that 
the  general  of  the  Dominicans  and  the  procurator  general 
had  been  appointed  to  address  him  (for  the  last  time)  on 
the  subject  of  his  recantation.  Once  more  Bruno  refused, 
boldly  maintaining  that  he  had  never  put  forth  heretical 
propositions,  by  which  he  no  doubt  meant  consciously  false 
ones.  The  resolution  was  thereupon  made  that  extreme 
proceedings  must  betaken,  and  Bruno  delivered  over  to  the 
secular  arm.  This  was  formally  done  on  Tuesday,  the  8th 
of  February.     (Owen,  p.  329). 

The  scene  of  the  ecclesiastical  degradation  of 
Bruno  was  the  palace  of  the  Supreme  Cardinal  In- 
quisitor Madruzzi.  Bruno  appeared  in  his  usual 
Dominican  dress.  He  was  forced  to  kneel,  while 
his  sentence  was  read. 

To  the  long  harangue  Bruno  listened  with  firm  and  un- 
moved countenance.  With  equal  unconcern  he  underwent 
the  ceremony  of  de^^radation — the  stripping  off  his  priestly 
vestments  and  attiring  him  in  the  heretic's  coat  of  the  San 
Benito,  while  the  solemn  formula  was  pronounced,  "By  the 
authority  of  God  Almighty,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit,  and  by  our  own,  we  take  from  thee  the  clerical 
habit,  we  depose  and  degrade  thee,  and  deprive  thee  of 

(882) 


GIORDANO   BRUNO. 


13 


every  ecclesiastical  order  and  benefice"  Once  only  did 
Bruno  condescend  to  notice  the  grim  farce  of  which  he  was 
the  object.  When  the  sentence  was  pronounced,  he  turned 
to  his  judges  and,  with  a  firm  voice  and  defiant  expression, 
uttered  the  noble  and  memorable  words,  ' '  I  suspect  you 
are  more  afraid  to  pronounce  that  sentence  than  I  am  to 
receive  it."  The  ceremony  over,  Bruno  was  consigned 
to  the  secular  arm  with  the  usual  injunction  that  "he 
should  be  punished  as  leniently  as  possible,  and  without 
shedding  of  blood  "  —the  iniquitous  formula  for  death  by 
fire.  Thereupon  he  was  removed  to  the  civil  prison  at 
Rome.  The  usual  delay  of  eight  days  was  granted  in  or- 
der to  afford  one  last  opportunity  of  recantation,  but 
in  vain.  At  length  he  was  brought  forth  to  die  on  Thurs- 
day, the  17th  of  February.     (Ibid.) 

Rome  Wreaks  Her  Cruel  Veng-eance. 

It  is  a  jubilee  year  in  Rome.  There  are  sixty 
cardinals  in  the  city.  The  streets  are  thronged 
with  pilgrims  from  all  Christian  lands.  The  at- 
mosphere is  deathly  with  the  odor  of  sanctity  and 
clamorous  with  the  multiple-noises  of  fanatical 
devotion.  Processions  march,  bells  clang,  prayer 
and  vow  and  penitential  psalm  drone  out,  and 
through  it  all  walks  proudly,  erect  and  composed, 
to  his  fiend-ordained  death  Bruno  of  Nola,  lover 
of  truth  and  paladin  of  freedom.  About  him  crowd 
soldiers  armed  with  the  sword  of  war  and  priests 
with  the  more  murderous  crucifix  of  peace.  He  is 
alone,  the  individual,  the  thinker,  held  in  the 
merciless  grasp  of  authority  and  hooted  by  the 
multitude  of  imbeciles.  He  comes  to  the  stake. 
He  is  bound.  The  fl  imes  seethe  and  curl  about 
him,  piercing  with  pains  indescribable,  disin- 
tegrating and  consuming.  No  cry  for  mercy 
escapes  him;  no  moan  passes  the  sealed  lips;  no 
expression  of  agony  is  registered  on  the  pale  and 
kingly  face.  A  priest  thrusts  the  crucifix,  gygibol 
of  hate  and  death,  before  his  scorching  ey?s;  He* 

turns  away  his  head  with  a  gesture  of  proud  impa- 

(883) 


14 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


GIORDANO  BRUNO. 


15 


tience— with  a  threatening  glance,  says  his  gloat- 
ing enemy,  the  chronicler  Schioppius. 

Bruno  is  dead  !  Bruno  lives !  Rome  burnt  the 
man,  the  unit,  and  she  burnt  his  books,  but  she 
could  not  burn  out  of  man  the  race  the  inextin- 
guishable love  of  liberty  which  was  the  life-light 
and  the  hope  of  Giordano  Bruno,  and  which  re- 
mains and  ever  will  remain  the  inspiration  of  men 
and  women  and  the  peril  of  every  tyrant,  ecclesi- 
astical or  secular.  Rome  of  Peter  burnt  Bruno, 
but  his  monument  stands  in  Rome  of  the  Seven 
Hills  to-day;  the  government  of  Italy  publishes 
his  works,  and  his  name  rings  through  the  world 
as  the  rallying-cry  of  all  soldiers  of  humanity,  of 
all  whose  swords  beat  hard  against  the  shield  and 
reach  hungrily  for  the  throat  of  despotism. 

Bruno  was  a  metaphysician,  an  idealist.  His 
was  not  the  nature  to  proceed  slowly  and  carefully 
along  the  path  of  the  inductive  method.  He 
leaped  to  his  conclusions  as  the  lightning  leaps 
from  the  cloud  to  the  forest  monarch.  He  said 
that  philosophy  was  search  after  unity.  He  sought 
the  unity  of  the  universe,  the  harmony  of  earth 
with  all  other  worlds,  of  man  and  god,  of  spirit 
and  matter.  He  did  not  believe  in  creation,  but  in 
constant  emanation.  God  and  nature,  spirit  and 
matter,  are  coeternal.  **  God,"  to  him,  meant  sim- 
ply the  unity  of  existence.  The  cosmos  is  the 
expression  of  God,  not  God  himself.  Here  he 
stood  apart  from  the  Pantheist,  who  says  that  God 
and  the  universe  are  one.  To  Bruno,  God  is  the 
cause  and  the  universe  the  effect,  and  yet  there  is 
unity,  there  is  but  one.  Take  God  away  and  the 
universe  would  cease  to  be.  As  he  said :  "  The 
supreme  being  is  the  substance  of  the  universe, 
the  pure  essence  of  life  and  reality,  the  source  of 
all  beine,  the  force  of  all  forces,  the  virtue  of  all 
^  (884) 


virtues.  If  nature  is  the  outward  originating 
cause  of  all  existence,  divinity  is  its  deeper 
foundation  and  the  more  profound  basis  both  of 
nature  and  of  each  individual.  God  being  the 
cause  of  all  causes,  the  ruling  principle  of  all  exist- 
ence, may  become  everything;  being  also  perfect, 
he  is  everything.  Despite  all  this,  Bruno  was 
naturally  a  skeptic.  He  said  that  **he  who  wishes 
to  philosophize  must  begin  by  doubting  all 
things." 

He  held  for  the  widest  liberty  of  thought,  and 
political  freedom  was  a  corollary  of  this  basic 
principle.  This  position  logically  resulted  from 
his  perception  of  the  fallaciousness  of  the  dogma  of 
the  freedom  of  the  human  will.  He  says :  **  Our 
opinions  do  not  depend  upon  ourselves;  evidence, 
the  force  of  circumstances,  the  reason,  impose 
them  on  us.  If  no  man,  therefore,  thinks  what  he 
wishes  nor  as  he  wishes,  no  one  has  the  right  of 
compelling  another  to  think  as  he  does.  Every 
man  ought  to  tolerate  with  patience,  nay,  with  in- 
dulgence, the  beliefs  of  his  neighbor.  Toleration, 
that  natural  faith  engraven  upon  all  well-born 
hearts,  the  fruit  of  the  enlightened  reason,  is  an 
indispensable  requirement  of  logic,  as  well  as  a 
precept  of  morality." 

In  spite  of  his  metaphysical  aptitudes  and  be- 
liefs, he  perceived  that,  as  Owen  sums  it  up, 
"metaphysics  can  not  yield  that  perfect  conviction 
of  truth  which  its  earnest  seeker  desiderates.  He 
was  too  keen-sighted  not  to  perceive  that  what- 
ever advantage  metaphysical  terms  and  abstrac- 
tions might  have  as  ideal  comprehensions  of 
diverse  realities,  the  standpoint  was  essentially 
imaginative  and  individual  and  that  the  pro- 
founder  the  research,  the  more  recondite  and  un- 
attainable became  its  object." 

(885) 


The  Christ  Myth 

A    STVDV. 
By  Elizabeth  E.  Evans, 

Author  of  ''History  of  Religions r  "  The  Abuse  of  Maternity; 

♦•  The  Story  of  Louis  XVII.  of  France ;'  ''Laura,  an 

American  Girt;'    "  Transplanted  Manners,'' 

and  Other    Histories   and  Novels. 

PAPER 25  CENTS. 

^    , J  :  ^ 

The  question  of  the  historical  existence  of  Jesus  is  jHal  an 
imperative.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  whole  structure  of  Bibhca 
criticism,  and  the  answer  lurks  between  the  lines  in  all  the  re 
ports  of  modern  investigation.  ^  r^„„oo 

This  little  book  is  the  result  of  investigations  by  Mrs.  Evans  a 
far  back  as  1875  in  a  department  of  Christian  doctrine  havang  n 
connection  with  dogmas  concerning  the  identity  of  <-hnst.  ^ 
that  time  she  did  not  know  that  his  historical  existence  had  bee 
questioned,  though  she  had,  after  long  and  painful  mental  cor 
flict,  given  up  her  early  belief  in  the  tnnitanan  creed.   Speak 
ing  of  this  in  her  preface  to  the  Christ  Myth,  she  says:  "  Ihos 
pe^ons  who  have  always  regarded  Christ  as  a  mere  man  canno 
imagine  the  shock  experienced  by  a  believer  m  his  dmnity  whe 
that  faith  gives  way.     Few  have  believed  so  firmly  and  entirel. 
as  I:  not  many,  I  trust,  have  suffered  so  intensely  in  renouncm 
that  belief:  and  it  is  because  I  have  found  ]oy  and  Peace  m  di. 
believing  that  I  mention  my  personal  expenence  m  the  hope  o 
making  the  way  easier  for  other  souls  tormented  by  doubt  am 
goad^f  by  thl  calling  power  of  truth  to  be  l^o^est  wi^  th^^^^ 
selves  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  what  were  once  vital  convictions 
but  which,  through  wider 'knowledge,  have  lost  their  meanm; 

^"""^EteTone 'interested  in  the  truth  or  f  alsi^ty  or  the  claims  o 
the  Christian  church  will  find  this  a  most  helpful  work  It  wil 
not  shock  the  most  devout;  it  will  satisfy  the  most  radi^^^^^  IM 
charmingly  written,  all  the  author's  points  are  carefully  and  con 
sSou^sly  considered,  and  once  its  perusal  is  begun  the  bool 
will  not  be  laid  down  till  the  conclusion  is  reached. 


A 


Address       THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY^ 
Aaoress  xx  ^^  Lafayette  Place,  New  York 


^ 


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